Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center Competency Framework

The major activities of the Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center (IPHPC) are designed to assess, enhance, and recognize competency in public health practice. At the heart of this three-pronged approach are a set of practice-relevant focal competencies that serve as the common basis for our assessment tools and processes (competency-based needs assessments), our courses (requiring demonstration of competency acquisition and performance in a course setting), and our credentialing initiatives (for different levels and categories of public health professionals). Each focal competency represents a complex aggregate of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are important for public health practice. IPHPC assessment tools, course design, and recognition activities all utilize this common competency framework.

IPHPC also utilizes a more extensive set of bioterrorism and emergency readiness competencies for nine functional categories of public health workers that build on the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Competencies. These more detailed competency expectations serve as the basis for assessment tools, courses and recognition activities for bioterrorism and emergency preparedness initiatives with state and local public health agencies collaborating with IPHPC.

The core and cross-cutting focal competencies, as well as bioterrorism and emergency readiness competencies, in the IPHPC competency framework are consistent with the national competency formulations advanced by the Council on Linkages between Academia and Practice and with the National Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness Competencies developed through NACCHO's Public Health Ready initiative. The core and cross-cutting focal competencies, as well as links to the more detailed sub-competencies/learning objectives for each competency and course, are provided below. Courses are designed so that, upon successful completion, learners will be proficient in: 

Public Health System Competencies

  1. describing public health as a system, including its unique and important features and their specific role in it, to general audiences (PH 411 - What Is Public Health?)
  2. applying measures of population health an illness, including risk factors, to community health improvement initiatives (PH 412 - Understanding and Measuring Health)
  3. identifying and distinguishing public health and prevention strategies from curative strategies for prevalent health problems (PH 413 - Population-Based Prevention)
  4. describing the role of law and government in promoting and protecting the health of the public and identify specific functions and roles of governmental public health agencies in assuring population health (PH 414 - Law, Government and Public Health)
  5. identifying and explaining how various organizations, positions and roles contribute to carrying out public health's core functions and essential services (PH 415 - Public Health Functions and Practice)
  6. identifying, measuring, and assessing the components of the public health infrastructure (PH 416 - Public Health Infrastructure)
  7. applying principles derived from the basic public health sciences to planning, implementing, and evaluating public health interventions (PH 417 - Public Health Interventions).

Community Health Improvement Competencies

  1. describing assessment in public health, including its unique and important features and their specific role in it, to general audiences (PH 421 - What Is Community Health Assessment?)
  2. obtaining, applying, and interpreting measures of population health status that are commonly used in community health improvement processes (PH 422 - Applying Informatics to Community Health Assessment)
  3. obtaining, applying, and interpreting measures of community capacity that are commonly used in community health improvement processes (PH 423 - Assessing Community Assets and Capacity)
  4. obtaining, applying, and interpreting qualitative measures of community health that are commonly used in community health improvement processes (PH 424 - Community Risk and Protective Factors)
  5. developing and applying a logic model demonstrating interrelationships among risk and protective factors for population health that are commonly used in community health improvement processes (PH 425 - Community Agenda Setting)
  6. describing and applying research, evaluation, and strategic planning designs commonly used in community health improvement processes (PH 426 - Community Problem Solving)
  7. identifying and applying principles for community engagement and participation in community health improvement processes (PH 427 - Community Engagement)

Policy Development, Advocacy, and Public Health Law Competencies

  1. describing policy development, advocacy and law in public health, including its unique and important features and their specific role in it, to general audiences (PH 431 - What is Policy Development, Advocacy, and Law and Public Health?)
  2. identifying and applying theories and approaches that drive public health policy-making for important public health issues (PH 432 - Policy Making)
  3. applying advocacy and agenda setting principles to formulate public health policy (PH 433 - Advocacy )
  4. applying legislative processes to formulate and implement public health policy (PH 434 - Legislative and Legal Processes )
  5. applying regulatory processes to implement public health policy (PH 435 - Regulatory Processes of Public Health Law)
  6. applying operational processes to implement public health policy (PH 436 - Operational Processes of Public Health Law)
  7. evaluating public health policy outcomes and processes (PH 437 - Evaluating Policy Outcomes and Processes )

Program Development and Evaluation Competencies

  1. describing program development and evaluation in public health, including its unique and important features and their specific role in it, to general audiences(PH 441 - What is Program Development and Evaluation?) planning a public health program (PH 442 - Program Planning)
  2. developing a public health program (PH 443 - Program Development) implementing a public health program (PH 444 - Program Implementation)
  3. evaluating a public health program (PH 445 - Program Evaluation)
  4. evaluating outcome and cost implications of public health programs (PH 446 - Outcome and Cost Evaluation)
  5. evaluating the impact of public health programs on different populations and cultures and using evaluation results to make evidence based program decisions (PH 447 - Evidence Based Decisions)

Public Health Administration Competencies

  1. describing public health administration, including its unique and important features and their specific role in it, to general audiences (PH 451 - What Is Public Health Administration?)
  2. analyzing the fundamental structure and operation of public health organizations, including their workforce, legal basis, ethical foundations, and performance characteristics (PH 452 - Public Health Organizations)
  3. applying principles of public health information systems to identifying and addressing problems and challenges facing public health organizations (PH 453 - Information Management)
  4. applying principles of public health management and administration to identifying and addressing community health problems and priorities (PH 454 - Community Applications)
  5. applying principles and tools of resource management, including human and financial resource management, to identifying and addressing problems facing public health organizations (PH 455 - Resource and Performance Management)
  6. applying principles of effective marketing and communications to identifying and addressing problems facing public health organizations (PH 456 - Communications and Marketing)
  7. applying principles of effective leadership in order to create a shared vision within a public health organization and foster partnerships that maximize achievement of public health goals (PH 457 - Public Health Leadership)

Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Competencies (the courses in this serices also address the more detailed and focused bioterrorism and emergency readiness competencies for all public health workers)

  1. describing public health's role and their specific role in emergency and disaster preparedness and response activities (PH 461 - What is Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response?)
  2. participating in bioterrorism-related public health preparedness and response activities (PH 462 - Bioterrorism Preparedness)
  3. planning for disasters and public health emergencies, including bioterrorism events and threats (PH 463 - Public Health Preparedness Planning)
  4. applying principles and tools of emergency and disaster response management to public health emergencies, including bioterrorism events and threats (PH 464 - Public Health Emergency Response)
  5. applying principles and tools of surveillance and assessment to public health emergencies, including bioterrorism events and threats (PH 465 - Assessment and Surveillance in Public Health Emergencies)
  6. applying principles and tools recovery, reconstruction and evaluation to public health emergencies, including bioterrorism events and threats (PH 466 - Recovery, Reconstruction and Evaluation for Public Health Emergencies)
  7. applying risk communication principles and tools to public health emergencies, including bioterrorism events and threats (PH 467 - Risk Communication in Public Health Emergencies)

Environmental Health Competencies

  1. recognizing environmental health issues in the community and identifying government and community organizations that are resources on environmental health issues (PH 471 - What Is Community Environmental Health?)
  2. recognizing human health effects of environmental exposures in the community and identifying government and community organizations that are resources (PH 472 - Human Health Effects of Environmental Exposures)
  3. applying principles and tools of environmental risk assessment in completing a comprehensive quantitative risk assessment of potentially hazardous environmental and workplace settings (PH 473 - Source and Exposure Assessment)
  4. applying principles and tools of environmental risk assessment in completing a comprehensive qualitative risk assessment, including onsite evaluations, of potentially hazardous environmental and workplace settings (PH 474 - Qualitative Risk Assessment)
  5. applying principles and tools of effective risk communication in addressing community concerns about environmental hazards (PH 475 - Environmental Health Risk Communication)
  6. applying principles and tools of quantitative exposure assessment in addressing community concerns about environmental hazards (PH 476 - Quantitative Exposure Assessment)
  7. applying principles and tools of environmental prevention and control program development in addressing community concerns about environmental hazards (PH 477 - Environmental Prevention and Control )

Applied Epidemiology Competencies

  1. describing applied epidemiology, including its unique and important features, to general audiences (PH 491 - What Is Applied Epidemiology?)
  2. applying and interpreting commonly used measures of frequency (PH 492 - Measures of Frequency in Epidemiology)
  3. applying and interpreting measures of central location and dispersion (PH 493 - Measures of Central Location and Dispersion )
  4. organizing and presenting epidemiological data to various audiences (PH 494 - Organizing Epidemiological Data )
  5. describing the purposes and important features of public health surveillance (PH 495 - Public Health Surveillance )
  6. participating in the various steps involved with investigating an outbreak (PH 496 - Investigating Outbreaks)

Infectious Disease Preparedness Competencies

  1. describing infectious disease prevention and control, including its unique characteristics and relevance to population health and their role in it, to general audiences (PH 501 - Infectious Disease Overview)
  2. applying principles and tools of infectious disease control to vaccine preventable infectious diseases (PH 502 - Vaccine Preventable Infectious Diseases)
  3. identifying smallpox infections from signs, clinical history and other evidence, and collecting timely data for prevention and control of an outbreak (PH 503 - Smallpox Preparedness)
  4. identifying anthrax infections from signs, clinical history and other evidence, and collecting timely data for prevention and control of an outbreak (PH 504 - Anthrax Preparedness)
  5. identifying infectious from Category A, B, and C biological agents (other than smallpox and anthrax) from signs, clinical history and other evidence, and collecting timely data for prevention and control of an outbreak (PH 505 - Other Bioterrorism Agents)
  6. identifying emerging infections from signs, clinical history and other evidence, and collecting timely data for prevention and control of an outbreak (PH 506 - Emerging Infections)

Last revised June 27, 2003 (bturnock)